The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has announced the agenda for its annual Spring Meeting, to be held March 28 to 30, at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort, San Diego, CA. The conference, open to all and with nearly 250 registered attendees to date, will feature leading packaging and sustainability speakers. 

The agenda is framed by a review of the ambitious World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Vision 2050, which will be presented by Jessica McGlynn, director of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development U.S. Inc., and Robert Ewing, director of strategic planning for the Weyerhaeuser Co. This session will set the stage for exploring a variety of packaging-specific topics over the course of the conference. 

Other sessions will focus on the tools and resources companies need to inform packaging design and development: global metrics to track corporate progress, choosing appropriate life cycle assessment data, assessing biodegradation claims, understanding how some companies approach material health for packaging; and updates on extended producer responsibility legislation. 

Highlights of the conference include a look at the issue of marine debris with David Holst of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Ocean Conservancy president and CEO Vikki Spruill, and Skye Morét-Ferguson of the Sea Education Assn providing a science-based analysis of the situation and discussing some of the initiatives that are in place to address the issue.

Laura Koss of the Federal Trade Commission will present on "The Green Guides: The Influence of Consumer Testing and Implications for Corporate Marketers," and Judy Guo and Bruce MacGregor of IDEO will lead participants through an exercise on design thinking as an approach to innovation. They will outline the principles they use to influence positive transformation of the world and how they can be used to address sustainability issues articulated in the SPC Definition. 

Pre-meeting workshops will be offered on "Life Cycle Assessment and the Earthster Tool" and the SPC's Labeling for Recovery project, which will introduce a voluntary label for the recyclability of packages that is being piloted this summer. The full agenda is available at the SPC website.

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